Fitness Notes : Fasting Is Difficult, So Is Keeping Thin

The prayer on the lips of everyone envisioning themselves swim-suit thin is: controlled, supervised fasting. After all, our friend Oprah did it so it must be a snap. But according to Marjorie Rosen, a veteran of the Optifast program, the fasting part isn’t easy and it is nothing compared to keeping the weight off after losing it. The eat-back rate is high, according to a study in the June, 1988, American Journal of Public Health. Fewer than 25% of those who participated in the study completed the fasting program and kept the weight off.

After losing 75 pounds three autumns ago on the Optifast program, Rosen has managed to keep off 63 pounds. It hasn’t been easy. “Needless to say, it’s been a series of daily struggles and choices-- ‘Do I reach for this and avoid that? Do I skip a meal now in order to enjoy a dinner party later?’ ” she wrote in Ms. magazine. “Sometimes I muster up more resolve than others, but not one day passes that the Cookie Sirens don’t sing their allure.”

Expecting Travel--Should you be expecting and expecting travel, there’s no reason to cancel plans, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. Travel during pregnancy is perfectly safe for most women if a few precautions are exercised.

Air travel should not be a problem for women in good health who are experiencing normal pregnancies. But seriously anemic patients and pregnant women with sickle cell anemia may require the use of supplemental oxygen while in flight. All pregnant women should sit in the nonsmoking section of the plane to prevent blood-oxygen deficits from exposure to carbon monoxide.

Since pregnant women should not sit for long periods of time to reduce the chance of developing blood clots, request an aisle seat on an airplane so that it is easy to get up and move around. Seat belts in airplanes and cars should be worn low around the pelvis.

If it doesn’t cause overheating and is not physiologically threatening to mother or fetus, exercise is recommended during pregnancy. Yet certain kinds of exercise vacations should be avoided. Water skiing, scuba diving to depths below 60 feet and trekking above 7,000 feet may not be the best choices. “The remoteness of trekking areas, the high incidence of enteric infections and the lack of suitable medical care should be emphasized to those contemplating such treks,” the study said.

Pregnant women may want to avoid traveling to East Africa, Thailand and other areas where malaria that is resistant to the drug chloroquine is common. And whenever possible, immunizations should be avoided, especially during the first trimester.

Pregnant women should also remember that “vehicular injuries are the major cause of death in travelers and seat belts should not be avoided by the pregnant traveler simply because of discomfort.”

Still, there are a few reasons to stay home. Even if you want to travel during advanced pregnancy, the airlines may not permit it, the report said. Domestic airlines restrict air travel for women beyond the 36th week of pregnancy and most foreign airlines will not take women beyond the 35th week. And some insurance policies do not cover delivery in foreign countries or hospitalization for premature labor. It’s a good idea to check policies before traveling.

Warm Up Before Shoveling--Spending at least 10 minutes adjusting to the cold weather before shoveling snow can significantly reduce stress on your heart and decrease risk for possible related coronary problems, according to Dr. Dan Fintel of Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Fintel is associate director of medical intensive care at Northwestern. Especially in extremely cold weather, shoveling snow for 15 minutes may be even more stressful on the heart than jogging, Fintel said. And sedentary people older than 40 or 50 are at increased risk for heart ailments brought on by exercising in extreme temperatures. Perhaps the best advice, if you’re concerned about shoveling and heart health, is to hire a kid from the neighborhood to do it for you.

Brain Burn--The brain and the liver may not weigh much (only 4% of your body weight) but together they are responsible for about 40% of the resting metabolic rate (RMR), the energy the body requires simply to exist, according to Runner’s World magazine. Further, ounce for ounce, muscle burns many more calories than fat--about two to five times more--creating yet another good reason for exercise.